An educational journey through life and parenthood

Hubby’s Hobby

In some of my previous posts, I’ve mentioned Ryan’s remote-controlled racing hobby, but only sort of in passing. I’ve never really taken the time to explain it, or to really mention how good at it he is. So this post will be dedicated to my husband’s Need for Speed.

Ryan discovered this hobby about 15 years ago in our hometown, and spent a few years racing near home. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a following there, and the tracks all had to close. When we started dating, I had recently moved to a new city to attend college, so Ryan started researching to see if he could find a local RC track here. Having raced indoors on carpet and outdoors on dirt, his goal was to just find some place he could race a small car again. Before too long, he was back into the hobby he loves so much- full speed ahead.

Almost immediately, he discovered a local track that hosts “club” racing every Tuesday night, as well as a “tour” that meets for points racing once a month, and also a variety of other tracks that he alternates on other days of the week and the weekends.

Last night, I joined him for the first time in several months to Tuesday night club racing, and decided that tonight’s post would feature images and video of this hobby my hubby and his friends enjoy so much.

With that said, the first thing you should understand is just how much STUFF it takes to make these things work. Currently, the guys (and a few girls) are in the midst of carpet oval racing season. This means the equipment needed to make the car go is completely different from outdoor dirt racing: different batteries,different battery chargers, different tires, different tools. Here’s a peek of what it takes to make these cars go:

Once the cars have been “tuned” to perfection, it’s time to put them on the track and see what happens:

Then, when the cars come off the track, even from a winning run, there’s more tuning to be done. Changing motors, batteries, gears, and other parts I’m not sure I fully understand, and calculating something called “roll-out”. I think that involves numbers, though, so I keep a safe distance from that part.

Since he’s been doing this for so long, and because he’s so good at it, there are a number of trophies hanging around in our house. One day, when we buy a place of our own, I plan to designate a Racing Room for him to display all these hard-earned trophies. Obviously, these are just a few, but it gives you an idea, anyway:

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When Ryan first introduced me to the RC racing world, I was a little stunned to realize how widespread the hobby actually is, and how seriously some most racers take it. For instance, almost any weekend of the month, there is some big race going on somewhere, and there’s a congregation of professional racers as well as other hobbyists. Ryan, who is pretty hardcore in his own right, but is also good enough and interested enough to invest time and money into traveling, has gone to Orlando, Florida for a race called the Snowbird Nationals; he has also gone to Greenville, Tennessee and other more local tracks to race against different competitors.

If you can’t tell, I’m pretty proud of him for what he’s accomplished in his racing career. Currently, my role as his assistant and supporter spans from helping to carry equipment from the car to the track, shooting photographs and videos of his car and his races, and acting as “Trophy Girl” for the Hooter Chassis Outlaw Tour, the organization he races with. This hobby that started out as a way to spend time together with his dad and his brother has evolved into our way of life. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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